Black Chicken Studios are my favourite VN Indie studio even though they've only released two games (sorry to all the good people working on the Winterwolves titles ). Academagia is a stat based game based in a Harry Potter type world, and has often been called a cross between Princess Maker and HP. The writing is brilliant, but unfortunately the game is all about stats so if you don't like pouring over spreadsheets, give this one a miss.

Scheherazade is hands down my favourite Indie VN. It has their typical brilliant writing, but they combine it with a hilarious, adventurous protagonist and solid sim elements. It's massive and an utter joy to play. It's given me months of entertainment.

Hanako make some really good VNs, unfortunately I'm rarely in the mood for pure VNs, and their sim games are 'light' in various ways. Their games have quality storytelling, though.

Upcoming Indie RPGs:

Age of Decadence, an RPG for people who like plenty of choice in how they play their character. This upcoming game is all about freedom in how the player resolves problems, with the path of 'fightyness' arguably the harder path to take (which is unusual.) Beta is available and is massive in length, replayability and size (280mb.) It will be released in the 2nd quarter of next year, and our 7 years of patience had better have be worth it Vaultdweller! http://www.irontowerstudio.com/

Underrail is an isometric RPG set in a post-apocalyptic future. Progress has been slow but the alpha is up . Which you can download only if you hand over money http://www.underrail.com/

Expeditions Conquistador is for lovers of strategy/RPG/adventure hybrid, for fans of strategy and RPG goodness. It's also been released, so I shouldn't have included it in the list of upcoming RPGs. But meh, what you gonna do http://www.indiegamemag.com/expeditions ... adventure/

Wasteland 2 by InXile (they've shunned the publisher route and are funding games using kickstarter, so technically Indie). This game needs no introduction. It's one of the 3 games isometric RPG fans are patiently waiting for. If you liked RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Fallout or Torment, then this game NEEDS to be on your radar. Will be released Q2 next year. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08 ... steland-2/

Torment - Tides of Numenera by InXile. This game needs less of an introduction than the one above. Spin off to arguably the greatest RPG of all time and featuring writing talent like Pat Rothfuss, this is THE RPG isometric fans are waiting for. Will be developed after Wasteland 2, and released in 2015(ish).

Project Eternity (can technically be called Indie) - While Obsidian usually go the big publisher route, Project Eternity was funded using kickstarter and is being developed by a small team. The last of the 'big 3' RPGs fans have been waiting for that are being developed without publisher support. http://eternity.obsidian.net/

Spiderweb and Eschalon games are probably a little TOO niche for people's tastes. You'd have to be REALLY old-school to enjoy these games, Eschalon because it's punishing and they both don't have good graphics. Good games, with spiderweb containing some EXCELLENT writing, but most people will find them tedious.

I completely forgot about the upcoming Divinity: Original Sin, which is "An isometric, single player and co-op multiplayer RPG with tactical turn based combat, featuring an innovative co-op dialog system, a highly interactive, systemic and reactive world, classless character development, and lots of choice and consequence situations. Shipped with the powerful editor the game was made with, allowing you to create your own single player and multiplayer adventures, and publish them online." http://www.divinityoriginalsin.com/

I'm a pretty big fan of the Harvest Moon/Rune Factory franchise, and they're doing something similar. Includes same sex marriage options, which is a big plus for me. There's also an option to create your own custom hair style/clothes if you back now, something that I am super excited for. They also want to have a political system in the town, which I thought was pretty neat. It's also being released on the Ouya for anyone interested.

This also look really cool. It has pixel art based off of 90s adventure games. It's all cyberpunk, and starts off with you, the main character, as a journalist in Neo-San Francisco. You have been very resistant to new technology, particularly ROMs, which are a little personalize robot thing that is similar to the smartphones of today. Your friend mysteriously disappears, leaving you with a ROM and you end up investigating the secrets surrounding the company that makes them. In the beginning of the game you get to choose what gender pronouns to use, which is also pretty cool.

As far as the plot goes, it starts with strange ancient constructs beginning to take over the fantasy world. One day, as the creatures of the world continued to lose the war, a mysterious woman appeared in front of them, having escaped the constructs. She gives birth to a son, the main character, and he is given a body of metal and raised among the people of the world. The gameplay also looks really innovative. You can, of course, fight during the game but it also allows you to interact in different ways with creatures to the point where you can complete the entire game without combat. There is also a stealth option, or you can kill things and grow stronger by feeding off of those you defeat.

You start off as a woman from a small mountain village on the day her father dies. She decides to strike out on her own and try to discover who she is. The battle system is actually very striking. Enemies can't be killed-- instead you win by surviving a certain number of turns, escaping, or accomplishing some other objective. The reason you can't kill the enemies is that all the battles occur inside your mind-- they are things like "Emptiness" or they are traps called "Buried Trauma" etc. You have a skill tree and each skill is actually a real life psychological coping strategy. (Writing fairy tales, you can have an imaginary friend, split personalities, deflect pain with humor, kill off all emotion, etc.)

I liked Shadowrun Returns, but as Jack1974 said, it is a bit of a mixed bag. Even though I have it on Steam, I think I will get it on GoG as well (what can I say, I do prefer the DRM free alternative, but when released it was only on Steam).

One aspect I do like is that they have made it moddable, which definitely extends the life of a game to me.